Daily almanac

Saturday

Today is Saturday, Oct. 30, the 303rd day of 2010. There are 62 days left in the year.

Highlights in History

• On Oct. 30, 1938, the radio play The War of the Worlds, starring Orson Welles, aired on CBS. (The live drama, which employed fake breaking-news reports, panicked listeners who thought the portrayal of a Martian invasion was real.)

• In 1735, the second president of the United States, John Adams, was born in Braintree, Mass.

• In 1944, the Martha Graham ballet Appalachian Spring, with music by Aaron Copland, premiered in the Library of Congress in Washington, with Graham in a leading role.

• In 1945, the U.S. government announced the end of shoe rationing, effective at midnight.

• In 1979, President Jimmy Carter announced his choice of federal appeals Judge Shirley Hufstedler to head the newly created Department of Education.

• In 1985, schoolteacher and astronaut Christa McAuliffe witnessed the launch of the space shuttle Challenger, the same craft that would carry her and six other crew members to their deaths in January 1986.

• Ten years ago: Comedian, talk-show host, author and composer Steve Allen died in Encino, Calif., at age 78.

• Five years ago: The body of Rosa Parks arrived at the U.S. Capitol, where the civil-rights pioneer became the first woman to lie in honor in the Rotunda.

• One year ago: A Coast Guard C-130 plane and a Marine Cobra helicopter collided off the southern California coast, killing seven Coast Guard members and two Marines.

Thought for Today

"When love is not madness, it is not love." - Pedro Calderon de la Barca, Spanish dramatist (1600-81)

Source: Associated Press

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